Looking back...at the synagogue

Jewish Synagogue, North Shields.

Published:11:12Friday 16 September 2016

In Billy Mill Lane there used to be an enclosure reminiscent of a pinfold. Inside were a few crumbling Jewish gravestones.

There are occasional references to synagogues near Saville Street, below Tyne Street and behind Church Way. The Chief Rabbi’s census of services in 1851 listed 24 attendees at North Shields. Meetings are believed to have been held in rented houses. In 1868 the auction notice for 57 Church Way included two rooms in a house at the back in use as a synagogue.

Mr Olsover’s book notes that the congregation took rooms at Linskill Street in 1870. The picture shows 29 Linskill Street, opened as a synagogue and schoolroom on March 22, 1876. The local community was never large and by 1965 could no longer muster a quorum.